Pinning down a consistent time to hit the gym is, to use a technical term borrowed from exercise science, hard as hell. Weekend train outages, last-minute work fire drills, real-life apartment building fire drills, and unwelcome-yet-compulsory happy hours with your out-of-town clients all conspire to do such a good job chipping away at your precious workout hour that in the event that you do make it in the weight room door as planned, you're likely tempted to finish what you came to do as quickly as possible before the buzz of another work email sends you hustling back to your desk.

The first victim of this chaos, probably, is your warm-up, but skipping that part of the ordeal is a profoundly bad decision that will eventually leave you sore, cranky, and/or extremely injured. To help you avoid suffering any of these ignominious fates, we asked J2FIT founder and NYU Assistant Strength Coach Mike Dewar for some tips to help ensure that your next lift is efficient, effective, and well worth the valuable time you found for it.

Start with static. Most high-level athletes start out with static stretching—holding muscles at the limits of their flexibility for time, just like you did in P.E. class. While some research suggests that static stretching actually diminishes force output and elasticity in muscles, the effects dissipate quickly, and for individuals with hard flexibility limits, the benefit of light stretches at moderate tension far outweigh the drawbacks. Hold each movement for 15-20 seconds, and don't force anything beyond the point of slight discomfort. You're warming up here, not trying out for Cirque do Soleil.

Get the blood moving. Once you're lose, move on to dynamic, movement-based warm-ups, which prepare the body for controlled, explosive, and forceful movement through the full range of motion. This full-body routine is a perfect prelude to lifting weights. It increases the flow of blood to active muscles, and also helps prime the neurological system for the coordinated, forceful muscle contractions that your workout will require.

Take the time you need. Do not ask your body to go from zero to 100, real quick. No matter how well-trained of an athlete you are, this time will help you train harder, lift heavier, and be safer. There are a million movements to choose from, which can admittedly be intimidating, but these corrective and activation movements are a good place to start for most. Note that a full warm-up might take between 15 and 20 minutes, leaving you drenched in sweat and feeling as if the workout has already started by the time that you're done. Good—that's exactly what it should feel like.

Warm-ups don't stop when the lift starts. Depending on the workout, you may find yourself moving significant weight on your first set. Rather than jumping right into the first set of heavy squats, take the time to do a few warm-up sets, gradually building up to your first true “work” set. Warm-up sets can help to increase muscular patterning, promote specific blood flow to active tissues, and mentally prepare you for more challenging sets.

Watch Now:Once You're Warmed Up, Try ThisJay Willis is a staff writer at GQ covering news, law, and politics. Previously, he was an associate at law firms in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, where his practice focused on consumer financial services and environmental cleanup litigation. He studied social welfare at Berkeley and graduated from Harvard Law School... Read more